How do social justice witches hallucinate without drugs? What’s Russia’s latest propaganda tactic in its war on Ukraine? Is building AI like raising a child? Should Ivy League schools exist? Plus: the New York Times opinion section goes full-on conspiracy theorist.

A note to our listeners: we had a recording mishap this week, so the audio quality is lower than usual. Our apologies—by the next episode, it should be back to normal.

If you’d like to skip to a particular segment, you can find chapters on Youtube and Apple Podcasts.

The Futile Search for Purity

Fake Taylor Swift Quotes Are Being Used to Spread Anti-Ukraine Propaganda

Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do

I Finally Figured Out Who ChatGPT Reminds Me Of

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta

Let’s Seize This Opportunity to Destroy Harvard!

The Quick Fix by Jesse Singal

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Should we welcome or dread 15 minute cities? Where will the culture wars break out next? What is our stance on Palestine? Plus: we share our favourite books and movies, and crown 2023’s word of the year.

My Year in Ten Books (2023)

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Does Canada exploit its international students? Are economic forces converging to benefit low wage workers? What's the connection between the opiate epidemic and the housing crisis?

Why I Don't Believe in Allyship

A Response to Kier Gray's "Why I Don't Believe in Allyship"

What if Diversity Training Is Doing More Harm Than Good?

Why labor unions make people less racist

Canada’s Open Secret: International Students Are Here To Be Exploited

Welcome to a Golden Age for Workers

After Black Lives Matter by Cedric Johnson

Why the Opioid Crisis Is Rooted in the Housing Crisis

TrueAnon William T Vollmann Interview: Grief Is A Witch-Hag (Part 1)

The Crime of the Century

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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What did the Buffy Sainte-Marie documentary leave out in the quest for a clean story? Why are some mental health treatments for teens backfiring, leaving kids worse off than before? Plus: the risks of writing for an online audience.

OpenAI’s Misalignment and Microsoft’s Gain

What’s the Point of “Pretendian” Investigations?

Investigating Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Claims to Indigenous Ancestry

Two Indigenous Artists React to the Questions Raised About Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Ancestry

These Teens Got Therapy. Then They Got Worse.

The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills

On the Arrival of Silver Hair

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Did social media kill journalism, or did readers? Why is Canada's biggest bookstore chain floundering? Plus: a peek into the love lives of SJWs.

If you’d like to skip to a particular segment, you can find chapters on Youtube and Apple Podcasts.

Moralising Desire Is a Mistake

The Great Social Media–News Collapse

Misinformation Is Here To Stay (And That’s OK)

Get to Know the Influential Conservative Intellectuals Who Help Explain G.O.P. Extremism

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them

Indigo May Have Lost the Plot

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Is life a battle between light and dark, psychologically speaking? How has America’s conception of race changed over time? And why is it misguided to speak of healthcare as a privilege?

The Sociopaths Among Us—And How To Avoid Them

The Psychopath Test—Jon Ronson

An American Puzzle: Fitting Race in a Box

Pharmacare’s Big Moment Is Here. The Deciding Factor is Political Will.

Dear Americans: Healthcare Is Not a Privilege

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What caused NYC’s Airbnb ban? Could betting markets help weed out disinformation? Has fabricating trauma for entertainment become more acceptable?

These are the biggest wins in the WGA’s new labor contract

What Really Took Down Airbnb

The Wager That Betting Can Change the World

The Lies of Trauma Merchants

Fact check: Has Iran sentenced 15,000 protestors to death?

Believable: The Coco Berthmann Story

Racial Roles in Social Justice Culture

This Is How I Escaped the Cult of Wokeness

Review: How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement, by Fredrik DeBoer

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Are perverse incentives affecting climate science research? How are diversity consultants helping to bust unions? And why did Silicon Valley techies buy 55,000 acres of farmland?

I Left Out the Full Truth to Get My Climate Change Paper Published

A Study Showed Giving Money to Homeless People Changes Lives. What’s Next?

Beware Tech Billionaires Building Brand New Cities

Life, Liberty and Squat Chilean Businessmen

What Happens When Activist Goals Become Mainstream Norms? 

The Evolution of Union Busting

The Gentrification of Disability

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Would you use a state-funded social media app? Why don't people trust evidence of a good economy? Who is the most pro-union generation alive? And most importantly: what do spoonies and Hufflepuffs have in common?

A Meta alternative could serve the public instead of private interests

Biden Struggles to Make ‘Bidenomics’ a Plus, Not a Minus

Why We Need to Stop Romanticizing Illness

Emily Brigg’s Instagram

Fat Acceptance and the Amberlynn Reid Community

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Kier Here is a free digital newsletter sent out every Friday at noon PST.

Hello fellow humans!

Today’s interview is with urban Mi’kmaq multidisciplinary artist Tara McGowan-Ross. We discuss the grief of children, the harrowing delight of tree planting, and the cost of defining ourselves by our pain, all in the context of Tara’s memoir, Nothing Will Be Different. There’s something in here for everyone.

Above is the audio, below is the video—you really can’t go wrong with Tara on the mic. Oh, and be sure to check out her newsletter: Theatre of Cruelty.

Pet of the Week

June is a little tri-pawed one-year-old who lost one of her legs to a dog attack when she was living as a stray. She is very vocal, loves chasing her own tail and will nuzzle your hand if you put it near her always. Everyone say hi to your new favourite month!

I want to feature a subscriber’s furry, feathered or scaled friend in every issue of kier here! Please email [email protected] with your name and a picture and short bio of your animal companion so they can be the next Pet of the Week.

Stay Tuned

Next week’s newsletter will feature the third instalment in the four-part series “Finding and Losing Identity Politics.” If you need to catch up, here is Part One: Confessions of a Former SJW. My reflections on the response to Part One can be found here: A Sea Change on the Left? And lastly, here’s Part Two: From Hopeful Teen to Social Justice Fanatic. In Part Three, I will discuss why and how I left the SJW subculture. Meet you in the comments section on Friday, July 15 at noon PST!

Kier Here finally cracked and joined social media! You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and in various gardens, libraries and living rooms sprinkled around the Salish Sea.

Thanks for reading Kier Here! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.recoveringanarchist.ca